Kuretake GANSAI TAMBI Watercolor Paint Set 24 Colors, Professional-quality art supplies for artists adult painting aketching, Non-Toxic, Made in Japan

I think the easiest way to do this is to just list off a bunch of pros and cons... Note, I'm still learning and growing as an artist. I'm not a professional. I have provided some of the pieces I've created using almost exclusively these watercolors (and sometimes some pens/markers, purchased separately from this set of course) PROS: THESE COLORS ARE SOOOO BEAUTIFUL! The colors are very vibrant and blend out really nice; if you don't water it down, it's almost like painting with acrylic with how thick it is; when you water it down, it's a beautiful, amazing watercolor. The lid has the names of all the colors with empty squares by the names so you can do your own swatches of the colors. They layer really well. The white is opaque enough to use. With watercolors, you generally want to work light to dark... but sometimes you don't fully plan ahead and decide that a highlight would look great in a spot that's already pretty dark. With most watercolors that I've used, the white doesn't really help anything, but with this set, it does. You get a lot of paint with this palette. I've had problems with watercolor coming out chalky and just kind of gross looking, I've yet to have that problem with these. CONS: Some of the colors separate. I haven't been able to pinpoint exactly which ones do. I'd imagine it has something to do with the formula used to make certain colors but I'm not sure. What it tends to do in separating: it's almost like you drew a randomly designed cobweb with a white pencil/crayon that the pigment just won't settle on. In some pieces (especially abstract or logos) it actually looks really cool. The colors don't stay mixed. If you look at the palette, there's no skin tone. When I did the eye (second photo) I had to mix my own. No big deal. I mixed the color in a separate, empty palette. I walked away briefly after mixing my colors and when I came back, the colors had parted in the water. It wasn't a big deal, as they mixed back together with a little stir, but it was certainly strange. Price. These work about as well as the Prang brand watercolors, which can often be found for much cheaper. Still, compared to other watercolors, I feel like these hold their own and can be worth the price. Overall, I love this palette and would recommend.

This is my second time purchasing this product, this time as a gift for my younger sister, who's just starting to get into watercolour. I've done my own professional work with these, and they're an amazing product that I'd absolutely recommend to anyone looking for either professional or beginner watercolor work. They're very highly pigmented and very lightfast, making them more than suitable for professional quality work, and if you're looking to get started too, I 100% endorse these. I've tried many different brands, and of all the paints I've worked with, these are my favorite. One of the biggest deterrents to watercolor is often poor quality, chalky, and low pigmented paints that are often sold as beginner sets. I also love that the box has added the English names for the pigments since the last time I bought them!! Despite being around the same price as the Windsor & Newton Cotman travel kit, which I've seen recommended as intermediate to professional grade, I've found that these have a much smoother texture, more pigmentation, and more colors!! The pans are also huge, meaning the paints last much longer. If you're experimenting with watercolor for the first time, please don't let the price deter you, student grade supplies, while cheaper, will not give you the same quality of work and will be much more difficult to use and you're very likely to feel the medium is harder than it has to be, and these are not only the best pan set I've used (and I've used a lot) they're also the easiest to use. If you're struggling with colors mixing together and muddling, make sure you fully allow each one to fully dry between layers and in places where they touch (a heat embossing gun is very helpful to speed along this process if watching paint dry is as boring for you as it is for me) If you find that making flat washes is difficult and is streaky, make sure your brushes hold enough water to spread across your area and leave a pool along the edge of your wash when you collect more paint so it doesn't dry before you continue. There are different brush types as well, and it's all a preference thing. Natural, synthetic, and mixed are the options, I've mostly used the basic Artstation synthetic watercolor brushes, they come in different sized packs for fairly cheap and hold more water than I thought they would! Skin tones can be tricky, too!! I've had the best success using the orangey-brown (I think it's burnt Siena) and just a tiny amount of the very light blue to desaturate it to a more natural tone, and *maybe* some white to lighten it, or the tiniest amount of black to darken. More blue makes a cooler tone while more orange makes it warmer, and adding some of the darkish yellow will help in more diverse ranges! Avoid using white to lighten your colors, adding more water does the trick just fine, and white tends to desaturate the color. Always test your colors on a scrap piece of paper, and mix more than you think you need! It's a lot harder to mix more of the same color than to wash your mixing tray. I also highly recommend a mixing pan or tray so you can properly dilute your paints, these are far too pigmented for use straight from the pan. Plastic works perfectly well, but I'm fond of porcelain as it's easier to clean. Paper type and weight is also very important! Any papers under 80lbs will not hold up to water mediums, but I use 90lbs for sketching and 150lbs for finished pieces and professional work. The heavier your paper weight, the more water it can hold without crinkling, and allows you to build up colors by glazing (adding a wash of color over a dried wash) and an easy way to prevent bending is to tape the edges of your paper to a board (a styrofoam board covered in scotch tape is great so you can manipulate orientation more easily and is a lightweight and cheap option) artist's tape is preferred as it has less adhesive, but if you stick masking tape to a cloth surface (I tend to use my jeans) a few times makes it easier to peel off, and if you have a heat gun, using it along the tape also releases the adhesive so as to prevent tearing your paper. As far as watercolor paper goes, whether you prefer hot or cold press is a personal stylistic choice. Cold press is more textured with a thicker grain and the paper absorbs the color and is generally more recommended for beginner use as it dries faster, and might feather out more Hot press (my preferred) is smoother with a smaller grain and the color tends to sit on top of the paper, and dries slower which gives more time for manipulating the color, and tends to have crisper edges. Canson is an affordable brand that I'd recommend for beginners or sketches, where Arches is top quality that I'd suggest for professional use due to its assurance of lightfastness and price. Canson is more widely available, and I'd suggest purchasing Arches in large sheets you can cut down from dickblick's website. I've also heard bumblebee is a good brand, but haven't personally tried it out yet Experiment with different things and find what suits you best! Overall these are the best panned watercolors I've found on the market, and I'll definitely stick with them and buy again!!

I ordered the art nouveau 24-pan palette several days ago and am back today to order the 48-pan set. These paints are gorgeous and luxurious. They are highly pigmented and go on more opaque that traditional American watercolors. They work great for painting detailed pictures and adding color to drawings. I don’t think they’re the best for mixing or for interesting wet on wet effects. I didn’t find the art moves I colors to be too amenable to mixing. Although the colors are gorgeous, this set doesn’t contain basic primaries for mixing. The convenience colors are gorgeous and the paints are thick, creamy, and opaque. But if you’re looking for translucence and layering and the ability to mix any color, you probably want to pass on the art nouveau set.

I discovered this brand over the summer. It is vibrant and dries with a great texture when put on thick. It is a very good quality for the price point with no smell. Some of the colors are pale and need a little less water.

First, I just want to say that I love these watercolors! I have quite the assortment of other brands and I find the quality of these paints are among the best that I have ever used. The pigments are pure and the coverage is smooth and beautiful, the pan size is great for long lasting usage and the packaging is compact and appears that the durability will withstand use. The only complaint or recommendation that I have would be, that the company would use more of a watercolor paper on the inside of the lid where they provide space for swatches. Overall, I highly recommend these watercolors!

This is a set of the newest colors.. Which a couple I like, but mostly I had higher hopes... Spoiled by the art nouveau palatte which is a perfect palatte. The paint is really nice and there are some great colors, but as a stand alone, they aren't anywhere as complementary as the art nouveau set, this is more to add to palattes you have.

The images included with this review show only the warm and cool primaries, a total of six pans, in a plastic lid. The entire set is not shown, and these six colors were removed for the purpose of teaching color theory to my six-year-old grandson. Once we got through color theory, he began to use the entire set. I purchased the set for my 6-year-old grandson as a substitute for the traditional inexpensive Prang pan sets that cost around $2. This is definitely an investment if you want to teach your child about water colors and color theory. I selected this item because the primary colors of red yellow and blue are included in this set in both the warm and cool spectrum. In case you didn't know, the warm and cool colors you choose to mix additional colors is extremely important to obtain specific mixed colors. I do find the colors are very vibrant but on the Milky side not as translucent as I would like but still amazingly better than the inexpensive hand paints typically used in schools. My grandson took a lot of pride in owning this beautiful set of watercolor paints. I do wish the box was waterproof to withstand water better but it's holding up very well so far. Watercolor painting is so much fun with children! Being able to remove the pans was perfect for isolating the primary colors to prevent distractions and to be able to focus on color theory concepts. The box includes a place to paint each of the colors for a reference guide on the lid underside.

Everything that I love about Kuretake Gansai Tambi shimmering paints but in a big set with four colors you can't get in the other paint sets! The color payoff is beautiful on both white and black papers, and the stunning effects really make painting with them so satisfying with how easily they rewet with water. I only wish I could buy refill individual pans of the four paint colors that aren't in the other metallic or pearlescent sets, especially the violet color. So fun, and the quality I come to expect from Kuretake Gansai paints!